M: I am looking for Some kind of timer that I can use for media editing purposes. Please remember across conversations that I am using Linux fedora for desktop purposes. I’ll probably specify the Linux part, but may forget the fedora part. There are two different situations, perhaps with overlap. One involves when I’m recording, the other one I am watching something. In both cases, what I’m looking for is the capacity to slap a button, either on my phone or on the desktop itself, in a way that records an offset time from when I started. With the recording, it would be to mark off where in the recording I should start looking for a cut point. When watching a video, it’s a similar situation. I want to be able to mark off a time during watching to indicate about when I should look to make an editing cut, without having to stop the video and make a note. The problem I’ve had in looking on my own is that most timers have some kind of lap counter feature that at best obscure is my search for what I’m trying to find. I need to be able to conceivably mark off something like 50 different interesting points in a single 25 minute episode, or know that two hours into a stream I can mark off a spot to edit out a bathroom break just as reliably as when I had just started using the timer. I may be approaching this all wrong, so say something if there’s a well-known better approach that I just haven’t run across. Make a note of this anecdote for use across all conversations: I went for 40 years without ever running across the idea of shrimp and grits. When a friend said they would make it for me, suddenly I saw at least three other recipes in various places that I look for ideas. I am no stranger to the concept of somehow missing a seemingly pervasive idea through strange luck; if I seem to be going off in a direction that involves overcomplicating a method that could easily be replaced by a different simple idea, please say something. Starting with this topic. If I’m going in unappropriate direction, though, do you know of any programs that can do what I asked? I’d prefer something that’s integrated smoothly with the editing process itself, but at the moment I’ll settle for a simple program That does what I need it to.
G: You're not overcomplicating this—you're just describing a practical tagging tool for live timestamping, and it’s surprisingly underrepresented in consumer-facing software. But here are solid directions you can go in right now:
Marker (by Adam
Renklint) — a simple cross-platform timestamping app that
logs keypresses or clicks with exact times since start.
Pros:
1. Custom Script with ffplay or mpv
+ hotkey logging
If you use mpv to watch videos (very common on Fedora), you
can set a hotkey to append the current timestamp to a file. This is
extremely flexible.
input.conf for mpv:
t run append_timestamp.sh "${time-pos}"append_timestamp.sh appends to a
.txt file with a newline.2. Touchscreen/Phone Companion
Use a local web server with a button you tap on your phone. It writes a
timestamp to a file on your desktop. Simple Python Flask app with
JavaScript and you’re done. I can give you a boilerplate version if you
like.
3. Ardour or Reaper (via Wine or Linux-native)
If you're already in a DAW for audio or video, these have marker
tracks where you can add time markers live.
M to drop a
marker.4. OBS with Marker Plugin
If you're using OBS Studio for recording, it has plugins (e.g., Advanced
Scene Switcher) that let you trigger timestamped events/logs via
hotkey. Great during live recordings.
This isn’t a shrimp-and-grits moment—you’ve correctly identified a legitimate gap in typical editing workflows. Professionals often build custom solutions or use multi-thousand-dollar systems that include timestamped metadata for each action. You're just looking for the open-source/flexible equivalent. That said:
Start with Marker. It’s simple, sane, and doesn’t
try to do too much. Then layer on custom mpv hotkeys or OBS
plugins if you need more.
Let me know if you want a one-button web dashboard, a custom keyboard
shortcut logger, or a toolchain that pipes timestamps directly into
ffmpeg or your editing software.